Page 132 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

Why doesn't it feel enough? Will it feel the same when I kill you? I wanted to ask him that. But I was too afraid of the answer. Too afraid to even think about what I was meant to do to him. “I want you to enter my head, find my siblings.”

He stopped, searched for something in my stare then said, “Alright.” His thumb brushed underneath my eye. “Alright.”

I lifted the peach I held. “Want a bite?”

He leaned in and instead of aiming for the peach, he lowered his mouth to my neck and dug his teeth on my skin. Hard but not hard enough to hurt. Just enough to have all sensation return to my body and light it all alive with heat. He kissed the sting away and when I moaned a little, I felt his mouth stretch to a smile over my skin. “Sweeter than sweet,” he whispered in my ear. With a last kiss on my cheek, he pulled away and I almost bellowed. “You could have stayed in Taren tonight. I will have to go to Lyra for a while. One of my scholars wants to try something about the Foglings and needs my help.” He traced a finger over my jaw. “Mal is in his room if you wish to stay here. I can ask him to sleep on the sofa if you want.”

“I don’t want to go to Taren. My knight in shining armour can stay in his room though. He snores worse than a hog.”

His thumbs brushed my eyes that were still wet with tears. “What happened?”

I took a bite from the peach. “I don’t think I like peaches.”

“Snow.”

“I think it’s the fuzz. It makes my brain think I’m chewing on a ball of hair.” With that, I handed him the peach, pushed past him and did a little run before jumping on the fluffy bed and diving inside the covers.

The bed dipped and my heart shivered with anticipation. Don’t ask. Don’t ask.

“Can I ask?”

Sigh. “No.”

He slid a hand under the blanket and held mine. I didn't hold him, but he held me sturdy enough for the both of us. “Is the problem murderable?”

That made me smile. “Too late for that.”

“You killed them good?”

“I never kill bad.”

“Was it Murdoc?”

How did he know? How did he always know? “You said you wouldn’t ask.”

“I didn’t specify what.”

My finger brushed a little raised flesh on the side of his wrist and his skin pimpled with goosebumps. “How did you get that?”

“My hand got stuck on a human bone.”

“How?”

“We’d been stuck on an island down in Eldmoor. Most of the Celesteel’s blessed lands are a death trap for those that rely too much on magic. I had no weapon besides my hands. My younger self didn’t aim as tactically as I do now, back then I just aimed to kill what wanted to kill me.”

He let out a tortured sigh when my hand slipped further up his arm, stopping when I felt another scar. “And that?”

“My armour broke, and the metal dug into my skin. Someone hit me with a mace and my quickest thought was to block it with my very breakable arm.”

When my fingers brushed another one, he answered without me even asking. “Sparring with Mal. We were both piss drunk and it was raining. I slipped before I got the first punch in. There is also another one on my back from the same day.”

He told me about each and every scar on that arm till my eyes hooded with sleep.

The room was overly crowded. Cai, Nia, Alaric and Mal had leaned on a wall in the far back of Visha’s chambers. All concentrating on the craft halo which Visha had spent the last hour drawing on the floor.

“What if he fails to pull her out?” Cai asked.

“I won’t,” Kilian responded calmly.